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Saturday, July 16, 2011

The Drunken Master: Get your drink on! Part 1

Good day!

Real men drink their beers out of glass footwear

I live in LA. And if there's one thing about LA you need to know, is that there are a shit ton of places to get a beer. 90% of those places will be serving bud light, corona, MGD, and sometimes even Stella Artois!

"Ooooo, that must be fancy! It has like a foreign name and stuff!" - unknowing guy who just wants to put something cold and wet in his mouth

That's sarcasm at it's finest right there...

Those beers are fine if you just want to get drunk. But drinking shitty beer to get drunk is a waste of time when you could just spend $20 on a bottle of vodka and be done with it!

But then there are the other 10% of places you can go to get a good beer. An Allegash white, an Aventinus, a Franziskaner Dunkelweis, or even a 1554 if you're really lucky! In addition to being a native LAien, I'm also mostly German with a little Norwegian so I have a biological imperative to consume as many good beers as possible!!! (and sometimes to throw fire at things)

Check after the jump for a couple of my favorite places to grab a beer around town!

This used to be my spot of choice when I lived in Eagle Rock. Now it's a bit out of range for heavy drinking, but I still like to hit it up now and again. Right down Eagle Rock Blvd and hidden off to the side of Verdugo is this awesome specimen of a bar that sets the standard for all other craft bars. They have a rotating menu of beers with an excellent selections such as the Weihenstephan hefe weiss (It tastes like heaven in your mouth, trust me.), this place never fails to disappoint.
There's a motto they have for their beers, "if you've heard of it, we probably don't have it". This was true in years past, but with the rising popularity of craft brews that motto is going by the wayside. That is awesome news because it means people are realizing they don't have to be stuck in the pits drinking warm PBR. The more people that like craft beers, the more are made. The more they make, the better it is for me because I get to try more and more awesome beers!
If you are looking for a place to go with your special lady, the atmosphere here is perfect during the week. They even have a full liquor bar in case your lady doesn't like beer. During the weekend it can get packed and loud so it's more of a place to hang out with your buddies.
The only down side to this place is that they have no in-house food. To counter that, there's almost always a food truck around slangin whatever's hot in food truck services. Just make sure you check the website to see what's around that night.

I rate Verdugo bar 8/11. The selection is often awesome, but it can miss sometimes. And no food means no trying to sober up before you try and make it to the jack in the box up the street!

Eagle Rock Brewery
The most localest of breweries to me, The Eagle Rock Brewery tap room is an awesome place to cruise through and grab a beer or two. It's kind of small and the bar space is limited, but the guys that run the place (A father and son team) are friendly and will chat you up about beer for as long as you can talk. The crowd is generally friendly and they are willing to share the limited table space.
My favorite beer here is the red velvet. It's a seasonal amber ale that is thick and sweet. It's also 10% ABV so a couple should do you pretty well. The other beers they serve are light and crisp. They are drinking beers with a lower alcohol content so you will find yourself throwing a few back before you notice. The bar also has a couple guest taps so you may be surprised by what else they may have laying around back there.
Like Verdugo Bar, they also don't serve food in-house. But food trucks come on Friday and Saturday and you are welcome to bring food in.
One of the coolest things about this place is that they offer free tours of their brewery operation! It's fairly short, but they will answer any and all questions you have about brewing. If you want a quick and local taste of what it's like to hang out in a brewery, then head on down to the Eagle Rock Brewery!

I rate this place 6/11. It's by no means bad, but the selection is limited and it can get cramped.

That's all for today but join me next week when I talk about a couple of my favorite places to get a fresh steamy wiener!